


The Words of the Devil Dragon of Iron

by Kiiratam



Series: Blake's Fanfiction [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/F, Fanfiction, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-02 22:10:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21168683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: An unauthorized work in the Ninjas of Love Universe (Please don't sue me! I love your books!)Miko of the Chameleon Clan begins her travels with the fearsome Devil Dragon of Iron.Part 2 of ?.By BlackCat13.(This kinda sucks and I'm sorry. It might be a bit before I can write the next chapter, but I promise I'll come back and smooth this chapter out when I can.)((Takes place around Volume 3, chapter 8. (My BMBLB fic index)))





	The Words of the Devil Dragon of Iron

Staring at the gory wreckage of what had been a Spider Clan kill-team, Miko wondered, her eyes yellow with doubts - like she was standing at the edge of precipice and considering jumping - if anyone truly _deserved_ to have the Devil Dragon of Iron unleashed on them.

  
The fiend in human guise sat at the crossroads, waiting for Miko's order to move out. She had laughed throughout the entire fight - if it could even have been called a fight. It was a like a wolf among sheep, if the sheep had been foolish enough to charge the wolf. And the wolf had been killing since the dawn of time. Miko could tell that her companion was by no means sated by the slaughter. Even the greatest killers and assassins of the Chameleon clan could grow weary and disillusioned. The Clan Elders would send them to clanholds far distant from the feud, and pray for their healing. Perhaps half of them came back, rested, rejuvenated, and ready for another turn of the spiraling vendetta.

  
But the Devil Dragon of Iron? She had no such mortal frailty. Miko felt that in her heart, in her gut, in her very soul. Given a battlefield, she would gleefully make it a charnel house, without respect to allegiance or faction. All men die, but any who sought to contend with the Devil Dragon of Iron would only hasten their own departure.

  
The monster - Miko's monster - held up a hand before her face and began to lick the blood from it. Her tongue was long - too long - and Miko felt a suddenly, horrifying attraction. The sight of her monster's tongue stirred her, despite the slaughter, despite the carnage decorating the nearby foliage, despite the overwhelming coppery musk of blood.

  
Her own perverse lust settled her stomach, driving out the nausea she had been feeling. Miko wrapped herself in a certainty she didn't truly feel, and marched forward to the crossroads. "Come, why have you stopped? Must I incant the mantra?"

  
The Devil Dragon of Iron unfolded herself, and bowed low. "I but await your pleasure, Mistress. I thought you might wish to walk among your slaughtered foes, and glory in your coming revenge."

  
Despite her words, her tone was anything but servile. Miko's eyes flashed red as she realized her monster's impertinence, and she nearly began incanting the mantra that would cause the golden vambraces and circlet to shrink, inflicting hideous pain on the Devil Dragon of Iron. Enough even to force her mewling obedience.

  
_Blake looked up from her writing. It was the middle of the night, and despite being in bed, she couldn't sleep. After what happened at the Vytal Tournament, she was surprised that Weiss and Ruby had dropped off so fast. Yang, though... Yang hadn't slept yet. Blake had been listening to her breathe, and shift positions. Trying to find a comfortable spot. Trying to ignore that there were Knights outside, keeping her under house arrest._

  
_ And now, Blake could hear her crying. Muffled, probably by her pillow. And Blake didn't have any words to offer her. She believed Yang - even over what she'd seen, what everyone had seen. Blake wasn't sure what had happened, but they'd figure it out. But now? They didn't know anything._

  
_ But... Yang was crying. Blake had to help._

  
_ She rolled up her scroll, and stuffed it into the sleeve of her pajamas. Climbed up to the top bunk, and sat on the edge. Yang was face-down in her pillow, holding it and shaking slightly._

  
_ Slowly, carefully, Blake laid down next to her friend, on top of the covers. Just trying to reassure Yang with her presence. Blake knew that getting her to stop crying would just bottle up the pain. Sometimes, crying yourself out was the only way to start healing._

  
_ Blake pulled her scroll back out. Things weren't normal, but sometimes seeing normal things could help. And whenever Blake couldn't sleep, she wrote. Yang knew that. She'd know that she wasn't keeping Blake up, and being a burden. Just that Blake chose to spend her time up here._

  
But... Miko had asked the Devil Dragon of Iron to destroy her foes. She could hardly punish her for enjoying her task. However...

  
"Look at your robes! What a mess!"

  
The Devil Dragon of Iron started to remove them. "If they offend your sensibilities, Mistress-"

  
Miko looked away, holding out a hand. "Stop." It wasn't that she was repulsed by the sight of her monster. If anything, the blend of hard, scarred muscle and soft, rounded flesh was intriguing. Too intriguing. Miko had already dreamed of it, and they had barely been on the road for a week. "You must take better care of your equipment. You will take measures in the future to avoid gore. You said you can catch raindrops - catch the blood, and fling it the faces of our foes, if it will bring you joy. But keep yourself clean."

  
She bowed low, a scarlet nipple escaping from her loosely-girded robe. "I am your obedient servant, Mistress."

  
Miko turned away, lest she see the violet lust of Miko's eyes. The Devil Dragon of Iron revealed too much of herself, too often, for it to be an accident. Was she trying to seduce her Mistress, or was she just unmindful of her own body?

  
It was a question for another time. Miko squared her shoulders, and set off from the crossroads, heading west, always west. The Devil Dragon of Iron fell in behind her, a respectful three paces behind. But even at that distance, Miko could feel the heat coming off of her, feel her implacable footfalls.

  
"Amuse me. Tell me of yourself. Of your deeds."

  
"Are not my exploits well known in the cities of men, and the clash of clans?"

  
"They are, but I would hear them from your own lips."

  
The Devil Dragon of Iron snorted, and Miko knew that tongues of pale fire had spilled from her nostrils. "Then I will tell you a tale that is best suited to my tongue." She began to speak, in the tale-weaving cadences of a people long forgotten, "Know, oh priestess of Lady Yue, that in those days before the founding of the Empire, there was an age beyond your dreams and nightmares. Into these years I strode, harrowing the lesser races, making them bow to me, and offer me tributes of gold and grains."

  
"You pretended yourself a god."

  
"Ahhhh, no god achieved what I did through my own might! They sat in Heaven and judged, but did not act! They condemned me for doing what they themselves did - extracted love and labor from others."

  
This blasphemy nearly drove Miko to begin the incantation. But... she had asked for the Devil Dragon's own words. Would she punish her monster for giving her what she asked?

  
_Yang had stopped crying. Blake put away her scroll. She reached out and started stroking Yang's hair. Letting go of her pillow, Yang rolled over onto her side, facing Blake._

  
_ It hurt to look at Yang's face, at all the pain written there. But Blake made herself look, not shrinking away. Yang had helped her for months. It was Blake's turn. _

  
_ She lifted the covers and slipped underneath. Yang's skin was shockingly cool to the touch. Blake wondered if she was getting sick, or if it was just a result of the stress._

  
_ Blake wrapped her arms around her friend, holding her closely and petting her hair. Yang didn't like anyone touching her hair... but she seemed to have made an exception for Blake. It even seemed to calm Yang down. Which could only be a good thing, now._

  
_ Yang held onto Blake, almost uncomfortably tight. Blake made a slight noise of discomfort, and Yang loosened her grip. But only a little bit. _

  
_ They stayed like that for a long while. Long enough for Yang's grip to slacken a bit, and her to finally, finally! drift off to sleep. _

  
_ Blake was happy that her friend had managed to fall asleep. Unfortunately, it hadn't done anything for Blake's insomnia. And she didn't want to shift and risk waking Yang up. She started composing her words in her head, and hoped she'd remember them long enough to get them typed in._

  
"Though a false god, I ever did more for mine than the uncaring bureaucrats in the jade-tiled Heavenly Palace. I slaughtered the ravening monsters for them. I tore open the giants of the earth, to spill their blood and viscera, to make the earth bloom with rich minerals and ores. I built myself a palace from a fallen star, and within, I learned the secret of steel from the whispering walls. And, as a kind and generous lord, who only wanted glorious and mighty servants, I shared the secret with my followers. And for these mighty deeds, these fell and gory acts, these benedictions that my people begged of me, the gods in their_ inestimable glory_ judged me harshly."

  
The sheer acrimony in her voice made Miko stop and turn, looking at her monster. "They visited plagues upon my people. They tore the sky and poured down rivers of salt and fire upon them. They cursed the earth, that the dark places of the world would fester and give birth to oni. And when I protested, when I strove against this injustice?"

  
The Devil Dragon of Iron raised her wrists, brandishing her golden adornments. Her golden chains. "They returned me to the stone from which I sprang, and buried me and my legend. And now, now, finally, they have realized that they could not kill the stories. So your Lady Yue," the words dripping with unctuous respect, over a core of adamant hatred, "has made me a little tame pet for one of her servants. She hopes that I will undo what her and all her fellows could not. She hopes to make me betray my own myth, to replace it with one where I am a loyal servant of the Celestial Authority, just a well-behaved weapon."

  
"**That** is my story, Mistress. **That** is my struggle, that you might find amusement in. I, a slave of the Heavens, you its willing servant. Dancing on the strings of the so-called divinities. Are you _entertained_? Does the irony _delight_ you? Do you look forward to forcing me to betray myself? Shall I grovel now, Mistress?" Her red eyes burned, and Miko found herself unable to match her monster's gaze. "Will you use Heaven's torments against me? Must I threaten your life first?" She coiled, flexing her forearms and letting her talons loose, ready to spring.

  
Miko didn't have a choice. She'd seen the Devil Dragon of Iron in her element, in the gore-soaked slaughter, and she was afraid. Terrified. She began the mantra, "'Gone, gone, beast of imperishable steel-" And from the first syllable, the golden bands began to tighten. Roaring, spitting pale fire, her monster tried to leap, to rip and tear, to be free.

  
"Forge a beast of soft and yielding gold-" But her limbs could not sustain her fury. She wobbled on suddenly shaky legs, her powerfully muscled arms spasming and quaking.

  
"Shrink, shrink her shackles, make her kneel-" She fell to her hands and knees, red eyes burning with defiance and agony, snarling.

  
"If she does not do as she is told!'" The Devil Dragon of Iron, unable to keep her head up, wept searing tears into the earth.

  
In a bitter, pain-wracked voice, she asked, "Do you like power, priestess? Do you relish your control?" She screamed, tearing at the earth, but the effect was more a child's tantrum than the matchless fury of a pretender god.

  
Miko swallowed, her eyes reflecting her doubt. The monster terrified her. But... did she have a soul? Was she, beneath all the fury and martial puissance, still a person? Not a unquestionable god, not an evil demon, but a person?

  
The Devil Dragon of Iron spasmed, weeping with pain. She managed to gasp out, "Please... Miko..."

  
Whatever strength Lady Yue had seen in Miko, Miko could not find it herself. She chanted the mantra, quickly, and hesitantly approached her monster. "I... I regret the pain I cause you. But I fear you. And I have my own task. And I cannot accomplish it on my own. I require your aid. And I will compel it, if I must." Miko reached out and laid a trembling hand on the Devil Dragon's hair. Despite its steely glint, it was as soft as Miko's own. "But if you help me seek my vengeance, of your own will... perhaps you can find some of your own."

  
The Devil Dragon looked up at her, her eyes tiny infernos, her expression inscrutable.

  
"Lady Yue did not save my people. She has the power, the full force of Heaven behind her. But she let them die, and only saved me." Miko pressed on, before she could long consider what she was saying. "My vengeance may not be solely against the Spider Clan." And her throat closed, before she could travel further down her blasphemous path. But the Devil Dragon of Iron saw. And understood.

  
Gathering her mighty limbs underneath herself, the Devil Dragon pushed herself to her feet, still standing close by to Miko. "Will you swear to that? Will you remove my bonds?"

  
"I do not know how to remove your bonds. I am unpracticed with my gift of transformation, and I do not wish to begin my experiments with something of such magnitude. Besides, should anything happen to them, surely the Heavens would learn of it quickly."

  
"But will you swear?" The Devil Dragon had leaned down, placing a hand on the back of Miko's neck, drawing her close. Close enough to feel the heat of her monster's breath. "Will you swear, not by uncaring gods, but by your own self, that you will free me? That I may have my vengeance?"

  
Miko felt her back stiffen, and her eyes glow silver. "Though I am changeable, I swear that my oath to you is not. I **will** free you."

  
The Devil Dragon's grip on her became less imperious, though no less firm. "I witness your oath to me, Miko. And I will hold you to your promise."

  
She was so close. So terrible, so compelling. So beautiful. Miko bit the inside of her cheek, to keep from closing the last inch that separated them and kissing her monster. The monster she had entered into a mad pact with. A pact to pursue vengeance against Heaven itself.

  
_Blake set her scroll down. She'd gotten most of it, she was pretty sure. Weiss and Ruby had already left for the morning, Ruby chattering about the leads she was going to follow-up on, and Weiss nodding along. The Knights had just escorted Yang back in from the bathroom, and she had just gone to her desk and sat down, not doing anything. Zwei had tried to scramble up into her lap, but she hadn't let him. A soldier had come by with breakfast for her, but it was just sitting on the edge of her desk. Not that it looked appetizing._

  
_ Despite all the words she'd just spilled onto the page, Blake still didn't know what to say to Yang. Nothing felt right. When she ran through words in her head, nothing she said played out right. Even in her own head. They were all just useless platitudes, hollow words of comfort that Yang would see right through. _

  
_ And Blake did have places she could start looking. Go back and review the footage, watching just Yang. She hadn't seen the same thing as everyone else, so maybe that would show up in the footage. Looking in the wrong place, stance aimed wrong. Something. She could look. Blake would find something._

  
_ But... Yang. She couldn't just leave her alone. ...Zwei didn't count, the furry menace._

  
_ Blake stood up from her bed, and walked over to Yang. Reached down and took her hand. Yang looked up at her, and Blake held herself steady. Managed not to wince at Yang's pain. Just kept eye contact with her, and leaned on the edge of the desk. Just gently squeezing Yang's hand._

  
_ It wasn't an oath to bring down Heaven together. Just what comfort Blake could offer. Not much. Never enough. But it was all she had, and Yang needed it. Blake could stay at least until lunch. Maybe she'd think of another way to help Yang by then. Maybe she'd find some words of comfort by then._


End file.
